In honor of gay and lesbian history month – did you know that October is LGBT History Month? – and the second anniversary of my wedding (11 years and 6 weeks after my civil union; 31 years, 7 months, and 3 weeks after my spouse and I initiated our relationship), I present the following photographs:

While I was at home getting married (by a JP in front of the woodstove in our livingroom), my friend and colleague Ernie and his husband Kevin were marching in Washington, DC. They were wearing these tee shirts they had made for the occasion. And because Vermont had just passed marriage equality over the veto of a Republican governor, they received rousing cheers wherever they went.

The fact that the anniversary of the date the law took effect (September 1) went by without much public notice is as it should be: equality is the right thing to do, the right law to enact, and it should all be as matter-of-fact as getting a birth certificate.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, North Carolina’s legislature voted last month to place on the May primary election ballot a proposed* amendment to their constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, is opposed to the amendment – not the idea of banning samne-sex marriage, mind you – saying it’s a waste of time and energy since same-sex marriage is already illegal by statute.

Next summer, guess where the Democratic National Convention will be held?

Ding-ding-ding! You got it – North Carolina! Charlotte, to be exact.

Bonus points for guessing which state also has a so-called “right to work” law, a.k.a. freeloaders’ rights.

But the DNC thinks gay men and lesbians and union members (there’s some overlap there) are going to go out and bust their butts for Democrats.

I hear there’s a lovely bridge for sale near Zuccotti Park.

On the up side, Republicans in Minnesota, the other state looking at a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, are against the measure:

Wheelock Whitney, a former [Republican] candidate for Governor and Senator … spoke against the amendment for both political and personal reasons.

“I have a gay son.  I have a gay grandson.  I love them.  I’m proud of them, and I don’t like to see them discriminated against in any way,” Whitney said, adding that he’d already donated $10,000 to the cause.

Take with a grain of salt the Gannett news outlet’s assertion (linked above) that 29 states have considered and all have passed an amendment  excluding same-sex couples from their definition of marriage. The map up at the at the national Freedom to Marry organization’s website says otherwise. By their count, 24 states currently have constitutional amendments excluding same-sex couples from marriage. Seven states, including Minnesota and North Carolina, do not recognize same sex relationships but also do not (yet) have anti-marriage equality amendments.

We’re watching as we near the halfway mark on equality, knowing that DOMA must be defeated or America’s hypocritical pretense of “equality and justice for all” will continue to be exposed on yet another front.

[ * corrected]